It’s summer — travellers are on the move and villagers are up in arms. An unlikely Anglo-Irish alliance plans to lobby both governments but for now the debate has reached an impasse, writes John Burns

When Terry Brownbill visited Rathkeale last week, he expected to find “the epicentre of the evil traveller empire”.

He had travelled to the Co Limerick town on behalf of the residents of Cottenham, a village in Cambridgeshire where hundreds of travellers with links to Rathkeale are camped. Wearing an orange T-shirt bearing the slogan Middle England in Revolt, Brownbill was on a fact-finding mission to work out why travellers had chosen Cottenham for their 200 caravans, buying up land on the outskirts of the town and applying for planning permission to stay there.

Maybe there would be clues in Rathkeale, Brownbill felt. Clues to the travellers’ apparent wealth, explanations for what Cottenham regards as their “anti-social behaviour”.

Brownbill did not find what he was expecting in Rathkeale. Instead of being chased out of town by angry travellers, he made common cause with the community council. Locals, he found, also resent